


The arrival

by Aevyk



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27643745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aevyk/pseuds/Aevyk
Summary: Final chapter of "New Jersey", connecting the story with "Wizards".
Relationships: Jim Lake Jr./Claire Nuñez
Kudos: 6





	The arrival

Claire was angry with herself. She had forgotten she had been training and fighting with Jim during all the journey, during all those months. She had sitted down, holding onto the injured zone and having thrown away the spear in rage.   
She didn’t like the way that knight looked. He seemed out of time. How did Merlin know he was waiting for them? She looked at the wizard, who was watching a blue sphere of light with images inside. Then, two things happened at the same time.  
Claire felt an inminent danger, a hunch that, without knowing, turned her eyes black and violet just for a second. Merlin felt something similar too and he took a shiny green stone off his pouch. 

“Nari”, he said. 

Frowning more than usual, he closed the box that was projecting the sphere and found Claire looking at him with a defiant stance.

“Jim and Blinky are in danger.”, she said.

“We have to go up now.”, indicated the wizard, opening one of his portals through earth.

“But they’re in the sewers!”, complained Claire, pointing to the opposite direction. “Merl...!”

Merlin had just entered the tunnel. He poked out one last second and created a big green arrow floating in the air, pointing right to the sewers. All the trolls looked back to see it.

“There’s the Heartstone!”, yelled Merlin. “Come along, Claire!”

The trolls looked at each other, not knowing what to do, and they started walking after shrugging. Claire would have liked to see the new cave where they’ll live, but the feeling of danger clunched her heart and she followed Merlin in the narrow tunnel, ending in the deepest part of a forest. Merlin, a little forward, was holding the green stone.

“I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting it to be what I fear the most.”, he mumbled, frowning.

Claire got scared. She had never seen Merlin like that. They could hear grunts and fight noises.

“Over there!”, she shouted, running.

The misterious knight had brought the fight to the forest. Jim and Blinky weren’t able to contain him. He was too strong for them and he seemed to want to keep walking. Blinky had had to stay behind, injured. Jim still didn’t know who the knight was or what he wanted, but he know that, if he continued walking through the forest, he’ll put someone in danger. And he wasn’t going to let that happen.  
When Merlin and Claire joined the fight, he was glad that the knight started fighting with Merlin and he went to help the wizard, jumping to his side with the Eclipse Sword. 

“Jim, thank goodness you’re okay!”, exclaimed Claire.

“I’m happy to see you too, but you have to find Blinky!”, yelled Jim. “He got behind! Go help him, please!”

Claire had to keep following orders and she wasn’t having that. But the real reason Jim wanted to make her go away was that he knew she was still injured and she couldn’t fight. Blinky was in the sewer, unable to go out, moaning while he was holding his injured arm. Claire saw him and jumped inside the sewer to help him.

“Great Gronka Morka!”, exclaimed Blinky. “Where did that thing come from?”

“Merlin only knew there was danger ahead, not that it was that... knight.”

“He’s looking for something. Or someone.” Blinky said, holding onto Claire. “He has seen us as a menace and that’s why he attacked us. I’d love to know how he has appeared so suddenly.”

“We too.”, said Claire. “Hurry, we need to come back with the others.”

Once the Knight understood the connection between Merlin and Jim, he seemed to forget his first mission and started fighting both of them with the same strength, throwing from time to time some sharp stone shards to the Trollhunter.

“He thinks I’m a dartboard!”, exclaimed Jim, whose excelent reflexes kept out of danger. When he saw Claire coming up with Blinky, he fought harder. “Does he never get tired?”

“No.”

Merlin was fighting with all his strength too, with a surprising nimbleness for someone of his age and looks.

“We have to help them!”, Claire looked for stones, a branch, anything that would let her fight.

“By Great Gorgus!”, shouted Blinky. “What’s that?”

Two of his healthy hands pointed to the far side of the forest. Claire looked and saw nothing.

“An apparition, a...! Fairy?”, Blinky was lost in thoughts. 

He wasn’t the one who had seen her. Jim saw her moving through the trees and that distraction was fatal. Just at the moment Claire was going to start fighting with the knight, he throw another group of shards to the unprepared Jim.

“No!”, yelled Claire. Jim came around and dodged the shards, all except for one, that sank in the very center of his amulet. The knight, content, left to continue his chase while a shadow started to cover the forest.

Everything happened in a few seconds. Jim yelled and he fell on the floor, the stabbing pain of the stone travelling to his heart, the shadow getting bigger and bigger and what looked like the battlement of a castle landing next to him, Claire desperately trying to stop the knight. Her eyes changed color again and, just for a moment, a little dark cloud appeared in her hand without her noticing. All that energy made her dizzy and the knight pushed her away again, making her crashing to a tree and lose some parts of her armor. Blinking to make the headache disappear, Claire realized that the knight was gone and she went back to Jim, whose screams ripped the night. She dodged the tower from a castle that just had arrived and she kneeled to examinated the shard protuding from Jim’s chest.

“It’s moving!”, shouted Blinky. “If we don’t do something right now, it’ll get to his heart!”

“We can’t let that happen!”, Claire leaned towards Jim, with tears in her eyes. “Hold on, Jim, we’re going to find a solution. We’re going to...”

Suddenly, the screams stopped. Jim looked frozen. Merlin sighed.

“Nari.”, he said.

Claire observed that Jim was suspended, with a pure pain expression in his face. She followed the wizard’s and Blinky’s eyes to a little figure who was going out the forest. It was a little green nymph, with deer horns, big yellow eyes and a dress made with leaves.

“Nari is one of the members of the Arcane Order.”, explained Merlin to a stunned Claire and Blinky. “She will be able to help us with the Trollhunter, but we have to leave and now.”

“No!”

What looked like a big green amber stone covered Jim from head to toes. Claire moved away, frightened.

“That will slow down the effect of the dark magic.”, said Nari. Her voice sounded like music between the trees. “I can’t do much more.”

“It’ll be sufficient, by now.” Merlin made the stone with Jim inside float and he looked at one door of the tower. “Let’s hurry. They’ll follow us, but they shouldn’t get us.”

The tower was made with light stone and golden accents. Inside, they found some stairs. They had just started following them when the floor shook and they felt the awful sensation that it disappeared under their feet, like if the tower was taking off again. Merlin continued walking as if nothing had happened, followed with Nari, who left the stairs to get into the first room she found. The others continued until they arrived to a beautiful room with tall windows, books all over the walls and a big table.  
Claire took off her helmet, just in case that helped with her headache, and a white lock of her bangs fell into her eyes. She put it away, noticing that her white streak had become bigger. Blinky noticed that too, but he decided not to see anything. Everything was happening too quickly. 

“Is everything all right down there, Merlin?”, asked a low and rumbling voice. 

Merlin left Jim over the table and took what looked like a crystal ball from one of the several shelves.

“Set course for Arcadia with haste, Galahad!”

The face of a plump knight with thick eyebrows appeared inside the crystal ball.

“At your service, Merlin!”

“We’re going back to Arcadia?”, asked Blinky, who was looking for a piece of cloth to make a sling for his arm. “I hope that our fellows will be able to find the Heartstone without a problem.”

“Don’t worry for them.”, interrupted Merlin, once again busy with the crystal ball. This time, a familiar face appeared inside.

“Douxie?”, asked Claire, who hadn’t move from Jim’s side.

“Bring me the Guardians of Arcadia.”

In that moment, Blinky and Claire realized they had stepped into something bigger than themselves. The tower ascended to join the rest of the castle and disappeared from the sky just a second to appear again over the city of Arcadia.


End file.
